AR-9 General Specifications

Displacement: 8975 tons

Length: 490 feet 6 inches

Beam: 69 feet 6 inches

Draft: 23 feet 6 in

Flank Speed: 18 kts

Final Disposition: Sold for scrapping 1983

USS DELTA (AR-9)

The second Delta (AK-29), named for the star, was built in
1941 as Hawaiian Packer by Newport News Shipbuilding, Newport
News, Va.; acquired by the Navy 4 June 1941; and commissioned 16 June 1941, Commander
C. D. Headee in command.

From 8 July 1941 to May 1942 Delta carried cargo from east
coast ports to Guantanamo Bay, Cuba; Puerto Rico; Bermuda; Argentina,
Newfoundland; Halifax, Nova Scotia; and Reykjavik, Iceland. On 1 July 1942 she
was reclassified AR-9, and was placed in reserve commission for conversion
to a fleet repair ship by Cramp Shipyard, Philadelphia, Pa.

Delta sailed from Philadelphia 3 March 1943, and between
March and June repaired amphibious ships and craft at Oran, Algeria. She served
similarly at Bizerte, Tunisia, from June to March 1944, then at Palermo,
and on 8 July sailed for Pozzuouli, Italy, to prepare landing craft for
their return to the United States. Her final Mediterranean duty, from November
to April 1945, was to tend destroyers at Oran.

She returned to Norfolk for overhaul 27 April 1945,
and on 15 June sailed for Pearl Harbor for a month of repair duty. On
26 August, she arrived at Yokosuka Naval Base for general fleet repair work, including
the assignment of preparing Nagato, the former Japanese
battleship,' for the atomic weapons tests of 1946 at Bikini. Delta
served the Fleet at Shanghai from March through June 1946, and on 17 July
arrived at Philadelphia, where she was decommissioned and placed in reserve
5 March 1947.

Recommissioned 1 November 1950, Delta arrived at San
Diego 8 March 1951 to provide repair services to ships of the Pacific
Fleet there and at Long Beach as well as on periodic deployments to the Far
East. Her first such, during the Korean War, was from 25 June 1952
until 14 February 1953. On her second, in 1953 and 1954, she joined in
Operation "Passage to Freedom," the evacuation of Vietnamese to South
Vietnam upon the partition of Indochina. During her last FarEastern service, in 1955, she
served as flagship for the Blockading and Escort Force off Korea. She returned from this cruise to Tacoma, Wash., where she was decommissioned and placed in reserve 1 December
1955.

Delta received three battle stars for
World War II service, and one for Korean War service.

[Note: The above USS DELTA (AR-9) history may, or may not, contain text provided by crew members of the USS DELTA (AR-9), or by other non-crew members, and text from the Dictionary of American Naval Fighting Ships]

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